Fifteen Dogs

Fifteen Dogs

First edition cover
Author	André Alexis
Country	Canada
Language	English
Genre	Fiction
Published	Coach House Books
Publication date	2015
Media type	Print (paperback)
ISBN	978-1552453056
Preceded by	Pastoral
Followed by	The Hidden Keys (2016)

Fifteen Dogs is a novel by Canadian writer André Alexis. Published by Coach House Books in 2015, the novel was the winner of the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize^[1] and the 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,^[2] as well as the 2017 edition of Canada Reads.^[3][4]

It is the second novel in a planned cycle of a five-novel quincunx that Alexis will use to examine faith, place, love, power and hatred, the first being Pastoral, which was published in 2014.^[5]

An apologue, the novel tells the story of a group of 15 dogs, kennelled at a veterinary clinic in Toronto, who are suddenly gifted by the gods with human consciousness and language.^[6]

Plot

Over drinks at Toronto's Wheat Sheaf Tavern, Hermes and Apollo get into a debate about whether animals could live happily if they had the same cognitive and speech abilities as humans.^[7] They decide to wager a year of servitude on the outcome of granting the gifts of human reasoning and language to a group of dogs in a nearby clinic.^[6]

Given their newfound abilities, the dogs are able to escape the clinic and make their way to the city's High Park, where they set up their own new protosociety.^[6] The novel then explores the functioning of their new society through the impact of human values, such as individuality and personal freedom, on the conventionally hierarchical social order of dog packs.^[6] Key characters in the canine society include Atticus, a Neapolitan Mastiff who naturally emerges as the group leader; Majnoun, a black poodle who is reluctant to trust other dogs; Frick and Frack, a pair of Labrador retrievers who are leery about their new reality; and Prince, a mutt who embraces his language skills to become a poet.^[6]

Themes

Poems

Each of the 15 dogs has their name hidden within one of the novel's poems (bold formatting added to highlight the name).

Majnoun:

The grass is wet on the hill.
The sky has no end.
For the dog who waits for his mistress,
Madge, noon comes again.^[8]

Prince:

Longing to be sprayed (the green snake
writhing in his master’s hand),
back and forth into the stream –
jump, rinse: coat slick with soap.^[9]

Lydia:

With one paw, trying
the edges of the winter pond,
finding its waters solid,
he advances, nails sliding,
still far from home.^[10]

Bella:

Beyond the hills, a master is
who knows our secret names.
With bell and bones, he'll call us home,
winter, fall or spring.

Rosie:

The light that moves is not the light.
The light that stays is not the light.
The true light rose countless sleeps ago.
It rose, even in the mouth of birds.

Dougie:

How the sky moves above the world!
How the ground's fur is changed.
All to distract the dog with bones,
burried or dug. He will wander unsatisfied.

Athena:

We bound into the prairie
through ages of Winter grass,
taking the path Ina took.
Her name long gone,
though her roads linger.
The ground will not forget.

Atticus:

In the sunny world, with its small
things moving too fast,
I shy away from light
and in the attic cuss the dark.

Max:

The leaves they run like mice,
while birds peck at the ground.
The wood has rotted in its bin,
The grim axe has come round.

Frick:

In China, where wild dogs are eaten,
I am dismayed to be in season.
I curse men who think of me as food,
And dream of rickshaws and laquered wood.

Frack:

If rackabones eat up the sky,
if words spring out of rock,
my soul will wind down
and life run out the clock.

Ronaldinho:

Summer is full of smoke,
and endless lawns. Quietly,
whether across moss or on algae,
knee over the railing of the little porch,
fate comes.

Bobbie:

Running through the grey-eyed dawn
with last night's trash in mind,
the brown dog scuttles
through fluted gates
while birds sing on above th eworld
about a bit of fallen cheese,
the shish kebob he ate
and all the vagaries of pates
that wait for him at home.

Benjy:

The lake comes up to the fridge
while lights go up around the bay.
Somewhere near, cow flesh is singed.
Smoke floats above the walkway
I've eaten green that comes up black,
risen cold from torrid mud.
I've licked my paws and tasted blood.
What is this world of busy lies?
Some urban genie feeding food to flies?

Agatha:

What is the name of he who comes
with eyes closed and fingers black,
the one who draws the curtains back
when dawn has come?
'Agha Thanatos' or just plain 'Death'?
When will I know which is right?

Awards and honors

It won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize^[1] and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,^[11] and was shortlisted for a Toronto Book Award.

References